Mops are used to clean wood, stone and artificial floor surfaces in order leave them cleaner than by just sweeping or vacuuming the floor surface. In its basic form, a mop consists of an attachment device at the end of a pole or handle to which a rag can be attached and then submerged into a pail of water or cleaning solution. The wet rag is wrung out and then used to apply the water and/or a cleaning solution to the floor surface. The mop is used to clean and dislodge debris from the floor surface. The mop is then re-submerged in the water or cleaning solution to rinse the mop. Once rinsed, the mop is again wrung out and the mop is then used to clean another section of the floor surface being cleaned.
Traditionally, the two biggest problems such wet mopping have been: (a) as one rinses the mop in the water or cleaning solution, the water or cleaning solution becomes dirty as the mopping procedure proceeds, requiring a constant refreshing of the water or cleaning solution in order to avoid using dirty water or cleaning solution to clean the floor surface; and (b) the act of wringing out the mop after one submerges the mop in the water or cleaning solution. This requires the user to use one's hands to wring the mop out, thus touching the unclean mop and dirty water or cleaning solution every time the mop is rinsed.
There are a variety of wet mops available in the market today, from the conventional mop consisting of a device at the end of a pole/handle to which a rag, absorbent cord-like strands, or absorbent cloth fiber-like strands are connected to wet mops that include a wringing device attached to the mops to make wringing out the mop surface easier and/or cleaner after rinsing the mop in the water or cleaning solution. (See, i.e., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,745,429, 6,625,838, 6,477,731, 5,675,858, 6,108,848.)
Other mops, such as sponge mops, consist of a pole/handle and a sponge-like device (roll or pad) attached at the end of the pole/handle to clean floor surfaces. The sponge devices can be of different dimensions/thickness and in various shapes. Some sponge mops include a wringing device. In addition, some sponge mops include scrubbing pads with bristles to clean hard-to-remove debris on floors. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. Re37415 and 6,550,094, 6,892,415
While the problems associated with wringing-out traditional and sponge mops have been lessened by wringing-out devices incorporated into the mops, the need to continuously refresh the water or cleaning solution in order to avoid using dirty water or cleaning solution to clean the floor surface persists. Pad mops, however, have been developed to address this problem.
Pad mops typically consist of two primary elements: 1) a pole/handle with a flat square or rectangular mop pad at the bottom end and 2) specially designed absorbent pads that attaches to the mop pad to mop the floor surfaces. (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,163,349, 7,144,173, 7,028,364, 6,986,619 and 616, 6,893,180, 7,144,173, 7,028,364, 6,979,371 and the like). The absorbent pads act as the mop and can be changed as they become soiled while mopping the floor surface. The rectangular mop pad is connected to the pole/handle via a universal joint, which enables the mop pad to be turned in various positions in order to get into tight places and under furniture.
The pad mops may also include water or cleaning solution bottle attachments on the pole/handle that allow the user to spray a cleaning solution in front of the cleaning pad as one mops the floor surface. This eliminates the need for the pail of water or cleaning solution and the need to rinse out the mop surface. As the special absorbent pad connected to the mop pad become dirty, the user replaces the pad with a clean pad, thus eliminating cleaning floors with dirty absorbent mop pads and dirty cleaning water and/or cleaning solutions.
While pad mops are a big improvement over conventional mops and sponge mops with wringing devices, the pad mops still have drawbacks. The special absorbent pads that attach to the mop pad at the end of the mop handle are small in size (usually 8 inches long by 4-5 inches wide) and, thus, they become dirty quite quickly and have to be replaced quite often in order to avoid mopping the floor surface with a dirty pad. The special absorbent pads also have to be made of materials that can glide over the floor surfaces while absorbing any liquid on the floor surface. The reason the pads have to easily glide over the surface is that if the absorbent pads were made of materials that absorb and clean in a more aggressive manner, the absorbent pads would stick to the floor surfaces causing the mop pad to fold under itself as one pushes and pulls the pad mop on the floor surfaces, rendering the pad mop useless. Further, in order for the absorbent pad to glide over the floor surface being mopped, the rectangular mop pad needs to be made of a stiff or hard material. As a result, the absorbent pad cannot clean or mop as well as conventional mops and sponge mops as they are not as flexible and absorbent and cannot get into small groves, holes, or imperfections in the floor surface. Moreover, as one uses a pad mop on a floor surface, one must constantly replace the soiled absorbent mop pads, thus coming in physical contact with the soiled pads and cleaning solution in order to replace the absorbent pad. The cost of the absorbent pads which attach to the mop pads make wet-mopping a floor an expensive proposition without providing exceptional cleaning.
Thus, an improved mop is desirable.